The Challenge
Coach Mike and Coach Anjo are doing the 30 day paleo challenge! Adjusting to no gluten and no sugar it is difficult but with Coach Mike’s mental fortitude and Coach Anjo’s meal prepping and cooking skills, they are doing it. It’s week one and Coach Mike is adjusting to eating more veggies and Coach Anjo is not missing the pasta!
Here are a few meal highlights from the first week. Coach Anjo recommends The Paleo 30-day Challenge cookbook by Optimist Sally Johnson (she WODs at the noon class) and Kinsey Jackson. The recipes are simple and delicious! The meals with *asterisks* in this list are made from the cookbook or modified from those recipes!
Breakfast: Mango Avocado Smoothie
Ingredients
- Mango
- Avocado
- Kale
- Coconut milk
- Almond milk
- Banana
- Honey
Blend the above ingredients into a blender and you are good to go! You can choose how much of each ingredient to add depending on your preferences.
Dinner: Deconstructed Burger*
No buns in this burger! Coach Anjo put meat patties on a bed of lettuce with half an avocado on the side. To add more flavor you can add paleo mayo, paleo tzatziki, salsa, dijon mustard, or italian dressing.
Dinner: Stir Fry*
To serve veggies a new way other than in a cold and crisp salad, Coach Anjo made a warm stir fry instead! She made pan seared pork, carrots and cabbage, topped with sunflower seeds. The sauce is made with soy sauce, coconut aminos, dijon mustard, thyme, salt and pepper.
Breakfast: Leftovers
Coach Mike is eating the leftover pork from the stir fry (above) dinner with a plate of eggs. Sometimes the way to go is a simple breakfast!
Stew*
The stew is jam packed with veggies- kale, butternut squash, tomatoes and celery! And it was even better on day two after all the veggies and meat got to sit overnight to marinate.
Paleo Week 1 Recap
After week 1, the biggest takeaway for Coach Mike is that he feels light after meals but satiated. When he was eating pastas and grains, he would feel heavy after meals. Now that the grains are taken out, he feels better.
Coach Anjo’s biggest piece of advice is to tweak recipes for the things you like that fit your palette- or in this case Coach Anjo is tweaking recipes to make food fit for Coach Mike’s palette. Now onto week 2 of the paleo challenge!
Ready for more Paleo nutrition talk? Check out the Paleo Week 2 Recap.